At least 12 people were killed and 24 injured in a blast near the Jalozai refugee camp in the north-western town of Nowshera on Thursday afternoon.
The dead included women and children as the explosion took place when the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were queuing up for food.
According to the police, the bomb — detonated with a timer — was planted in a car parked near the distribution point of the FATA Disaster Management Authority.
The Jalozai refugee camp is the largest in Pakistan, and is inhabited by more than 16,000 families.
The camp residents have had to leave tribal areas along the Afghanistan border due to Taliban attacks or anti-terrorist military operations.
First set up for Afghan refugees, the camp saw an influx of IDPs from tribal areas after the Afghans either returned or settled in other parts of Pakistan.
Several international aid agencies are involved in the camp’s management, whichhas schools and hospitals.
As per, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there are still over 750000 IDPs in Pakistan, though the number has come down significantly since 2010.
This is not the first time that a refugee camp has been targeted. In 2010, at least 30 people were killed when two suicide bombers struck at an IDP camp in Kohat.
